There were workable proposals for private, cryptographically secure digital cash way back in the early 90s. The proposals didn't require blockchains, or proof of work, integrated seamlessly with the traditional fiat banking system, and would have been easy as a credit card card or mobile payment for people to use in 2022.
Government doesn't want this. Banks don't want this. Businesses don't want this. That's why it never happened.
I was about to say the same thing, it has been suggested long time ago. In this paper on blind signatures [1] Chaum describes in simple terms untraceable digital cash in one paragraph.
Ikr. The only win the cryptocurrencies of today have over these early digital cash proposals is that they are permissionless... Satoshi didn't need the cooperation or the permission of vested interests to get going. Now central banks and governments are being dragged kicking and screaming in to a world in which they could have had influence in 30 years ago.
Government doesn't want this. Banks don't want this. Businesses don't want this. That's why it never happened.
Here's one from presentation by the NSA from 1996
https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/mone...
David Chaum and Stefan Brands are 2 names to google to look at this stuff. Chaum was posting papers on this in the 80s.
Who knows, perhaps Bitcoin will be the VHS that finally makes this happen one day.